Disclaimer: I don't own Prince of Tennis or any characters

Alex's POV

I followed Kiryu and he led us to the tree that we had first sat down on when we had decided to play boyfriend and girlfriend.

"I'm sorry about how we ended things." He said.

"We agreed that we were ending things." I told him. On the inside, I was glad that we were at least fixing the friendship part of our fake relationship.

"I know. I'm just sorry that I yelled at you about your friend Leon." He said, sitting down in the grass. I decided to stay standing. The grass was probably wet and cold in the November air.

"It's alright." I told him. "Leon can be a bit much sometimes."

"It's just that, with my new feelings for you, I got jealous. But the more I see you with him the more I see that I don't really understand." He said all this sadly, which made me wonder what he was talking about.

"Understand what?" I had to ask.

"Understand you." He said, looking at me so seriously that I couldn't really think of anything to say. "You act different around him. More happy I guess, you smile a lot more. And not just any smile, you truly smile with him and he makes you laugh so easy." I hadn't realized that all of that was so obvious.

"That's just because he's known me so long and not to mention that he lived with me for a while." I said, trying to make him understand my relationship with Leon.

"Maybe for you, that's how it is." Kiryu said, shrugging off all my tries at trying to make him understand.

"What do you mean maybe for me?"

"Are you really that clueless that you don't see his love for you as more than a friend?" Kiryu asked.

"There's something that you don't understand." I said, finally coming to what he was talking about. Leon had loved Alice probably like he will never love anyone else and us being twins he probably sees her in me all the time. Leon couldn't possible love me the way that Kiryu was suggesting.

"I'm begging you." Kiryu said with such longing that all I could do was stare at him. "Please. Help me understand. Every time I see you with him it gets hard to breathe and it feels like someone has punched a hole where my heart should be. I just want to understand you." I watched him as he said all this and I felt the guilt just eating away at me.

"I can't." I whispered. "No one will understand."

"But Leon does." He said standing up and walking to me. "It's not fair that he gets to know all about you and he's not even the one that holds your heart."

"The only reason he knows is because he was there when it happened." I told Kiryu, looking into his eyes and trying with all I had in me to make him understand. "He knows and I hate that fact. I hate it so much that we fight all the time. But he was there and he knows and I can't do anything to change that fact, no matter what I wish." Kiryu leaned against the tree and sighed a deep sigh that made me think that the weight of the world was on his shoulders.

"As long as he doesn't hold your heart, I'm o.k." Kiryu said turning and smiling sadly at me.

"I'm sorry that I can't give it you." I said hugging him and resting my head on his shoulder. I felt like crying, but I sucked it up and trying to be strong.

"It's alright." He said, hugging me back and holding me with strong arms. I pulled away from him and blinked the tears away.

"So our friendship is alright?" I asked as the bell rang and we started heading inside.

"Yeah. If I can't have your heart then at least I get the joy of still seeing you every day." He smiled at me sadly again and turned to go to class. I felt happy that we were friends again but at the same time I felt an overwhelming sadness that he loved me so much and I couldn't do a thing about it. I shook my head and went to class.

In class, the teacher assigned us some reading and we started reading quietly.

"You know your being difficult with Brian, right?" Me and Alice were lying out on the porch of our cabin and looking up at the stars. I was leaning against one railing and she had her head in my lap as I played with her hairs.

"I'm not the only one being difficult."I told her. "Why is everyone taking Brian's side?"

"I'm not taking sides." She said. "I talked to Brian the other night about this stuff too. Don't you 2 see what this is doing to everyone else around you?"

"It only concerns me and Brian." I said. Now Alice shot up.

"Are you serious?" She almost shouted. "You really don't see at school that our friends picking sides and getting dragged into the middle of this?" I thought about it for a second and then I felt extremely stupid. Just this morning we played tug-o-war with Jake.

"Guess it is pretty dumb huh." I said, not wanting to look at her now.

"You and Brian have a special relationship. You 2 can't function right without each other." She laughed at the end.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, not laughing with her.

"You 2 are so close that this fight is taking out the worst in you 2." She said. "Everyone else on the outside see's it. In truth, I've always been jealous of you 2's relationship." I looked at her now but she continued to stare at the stars.

"Why would you be jealous of us?" I asked.

"Because you 2 are so close. Sometimes I wonder if you 2 should've been the twins." She laughed sadly. I thought about it and, once again, I felt stupid that I hadn't seen this before. Now I didn't know what to say to make Alice feel any better.

"Don't worry about it." She said, smiling at me. "I've gotten over it a long time ago. But you and Brian really should fix it." I looked up at the night sky and smiled. She was right.

"I'll try to fix it tomorrow." I said and closed my eyes.

When I opened them again, there were so many people here to see me tonight that my palms starting sweating. I swallowed twice, trying to clear my throat but it didn't seem to work. Leon was over talking to my dad and as he was walking towards me I found myself thinking about Brian and Alice at the Nationals and wondering how they were doing.

Leon wrapped me in a hug and in that instant I knew where I truly wanted to be. Leon pulled away from me and instantly I could tell that he knew I was up to something.

"What?" He asked. I smiled at him sadly. This was probably going to be the hardest on him.

"Thank you for supporting me this long." I said.

"Today will decide the rest of your life." He said. "Good luck out there."

"I'm sorry. But I'm not going out there. I have a tennis match to get to." I said, trying to run away from him before his anger got the best of him. But to no avail because he caught me by the wrist before I could get too far from him.

"What are you talking about?" He asked the anger evident in his voice. "This is everything you worked for. You're going to shoot straight for the top. Don't let anyone take this from you." And he was right but I was looking at it in a different light now. Brian had finally given me everything I had been looking for from him and now that I had his blessing, it felt wrong not playing tennis. All the years that we played together, I just wanted to know that it was alright with him if I didn't play tennis. Now that it was, it was all I wanted to do. There was nothing left to stop us from becoming the top players in the world.

"Me and Alice are going to be the top pro-players in the world and at our games I hope to see you in the stands cheering me on. But I have to go. I've made up my mind and there's nothing you can do to change it back." I pulled out of his grip and ran for my dad. He would get me there on time. It wasn't too late.

"Earth to Alex." Kinta waved his hand in front of my face. "The last bell just rang." Hearing that my heart jumped into overdrive and I got up and headed to my locker. I threw books and papers into my back pack at random and headed for the front gate.

"Where's the fire?" Kiryu asked me as I ran to the wall.

"If anyone asks, tell them I left early. I'll see you on Monday." I waved and ran through the front gate and to the train station. It took me 45 mins. to get to the Wasabe Music Hall. When I finally got there, I stood out front just staring at the door. It felt like my legs were jelly and wouldn't move.

"If you're not going to go in then why don't you move?" A rude voice said behind me. I turned around to see a small girl carrying a violin case standing behind me. "Some of us have to warm up before the competition starts." I stepped aside and she walked passed me all in a huff.

I followed her inside and she went straight for the sign in table. They gave her a number that went on her arm and she stalked off towards what could only be backstage. I sighed and was going to head into the auditorium when I seen the clerk that invited me by the sign up stand. I waved and she said something to her friend and came over to me.

"I'm so glad that you made it." She smiled and hugged me. "Did you sign in already?"

"I can't compete." I told her quickly, thinking on my feet. "We're going out of town today and I just stopped in to see how it was going to progress." The disappointment on her face was obvious and I instantly felt bad.

"Well I'll tell you what." She said and I could already tell that she was thinking just as fast as I was. "I have a very old friend who is very interested in hearing you play. Why don't you play one song at the end of the night?" Everything in me screamed no but I the ache in my heart was greater.

"Just one song." I said and as soon as the words left my mouth, my heart felt so light and free just like old times.

"Great." She smiled. "You can head back stage and watch from back there. If you need anything, just let me know." I nodded and headed the way that the first girl went and found myself going down a long corridor. I looked in each room as I passed by and saw many different people playing different instruments. A lot of the kids had teachers that were listening and correcting them. I stood for a minute and watched the girl that had been rude to me and even though I couldn't hear her sound, I could already tell that she was good. It was the way that she held herself and her instrument and the way she looked when she played. I could already tell that she had passion for music and it made me smile.

I walked until I came behind the stage and I looked out. Already there were tons of people filling up the place and the judges were already sitting in their seats talking among themselves.

"I don't even know why you bother coming to the events. You'll only come in 2nd place behind me again." I recognized the rude girls voice right away and I turned to see who she was talking to. It turned out to be a shy girl holding a flute.

"I come because I love music and it's not about what place you come in." She said in a small voice looking at the ground.

"And that's the attitude that get's you 2nd place." Said the rude girl, she laughed and 2 other girls laughed with her. One was tall and butchy holding a clarinet and the other was quite a bit smaller also holding a flute.

"As long as people hear the sound of music.." The shy girl said, trying to get her point across.

"What?" The rude girl said again. "Then you'll be happy?"

"The last time I checked, that's why most people start." I said, coming away from the stage. The rude girl looked at me and sized me up.

"I don't see a number on your arm." She sneered.

"I'm not here to compete. I was invited." I told her nicely.

"Then shouldn't you sit out in the audience?" She asked. I stared at her for a minute and I could tell that she was nervous.

"Why don't you just leave her alone?" I asked, smiling. "Or is your sound so bad that you need to rag on hers to make up for what's lost in yours?" Both girls and the shy girl gasped.

"You wouldn't know the first thing about sounds." She growled. "And just to let you know, I had one of the top teachers in the country train me and there is nothing wrong with my sound."

"You can train a dog to do fancy tricks but if the dog is inept, then it can only go so far in the dog show." I shrugged like it was no big deal and I could tell that she was fuming.

"You listen here…" She snarled but was stopped when whispering broke out in the crowd. Curious, we all went to go see what all the commotion was about. Coming down the aisle was the oldest man I had ever seen in my life. He had to be 90, at the least.

"Oh my gosh." The rude girl said and I looked at her only to see the last of the color drain out of her face.

"What?" I asked as the old man was helped to sit at the very end of the judges table by 2 guys. He greeted the clerk women and shook hands with the rest of the judges panel.

"That's Hashimoto Sensei." She breathed. "Only the best pianist in the whole of Japan. He was rated number 3 in the world." Something in my memory was stirring about my recital but the more I tried to remember, the more it seemed to slip away.

"Places." A teacher whispered and everyone quieted down.

"Are you nervous?" I asked the shy girl. We were both peeking out at the old man sitting at the end.

"I wonder why he's here?" She asked, ignoring my question. "What would bring him to such a low standing music competition?" I looked around for Rude Girl and saw her talking to her teacher. I wonder how nervous she was but I shrugged it off.

In total, there were 15 students involved and Rude Girl was going 2nd to last. Shy Girl was going 3rd and I was curious to hear what she sounded like.

"Up next is Akari Sakamoto." There was clapping and she made her way onto the stage with her flute in hand and her high heeled shoe's clacking as she made her way. The theme of the contest for today was an end but also a beginning. I thought it was kinda hard, but as I listened to Shy Girl play the flute her talent washed over me and I couldn't help but smile. When she ended, I clapped.

"That was amazing." I told her as she came off the stage, her face beet red.

"It was alright." She said in a small voice.

"Are you kidding me?" I asked. "That was just fine." She ended up getting 3 7's and a 6. I thought they should've gave her a better score, but that was just me.

It didn't seem long for me, but Rude Girl was up.

"Watch and learn." She sneered at me as she walked by. I watched as took her stance just like Leon. They were both so professional as soon as they stepped onto the stage, it was amazing.

The song she was playing started off slow and gradually got stronger and I hated to admit it but she was really good. It was just that there was something missing. Like food that was cooked to perfection, but once you added just the right amount of salt it added a flavor that you couldn't really explain.

When she was done, there was a burst of applause and she smiled so brightly that I had to wonder how she could be so rude and mean and still look like that. I shrugged it off as she got 4 8's and a 9.

"And that's how you play." She said, skipping by us. Shy Girl didn't look to happy about the score.

"You know what your problem is?" I asked, putting my thumb on why she was good but not great. She didn't look at me but just stared out at all the people watching and the last person went up with a trumpet. "You need to play with confidence. I think once you master that, you'll be unstoppable."

"How would you know?" She asked in a huff and I realized that I may have come off a little too harsh on her.

"Because I was once told that confidence was key to these kinds of things. It just makes everything different." I remember when I first started out and how awkward it was.

"And now for a special treat, we saved the best for last with a one time performance for you." She had hesitated and I realized that no one here knew my name. I sucked in a deep breath and shook off my nerves and walked to the piano. It was all tuned and ready to go, so all I needed to do was start.

I closed my eyes and thought about the theme and started a 5 minute exert from Moonlight Sonata. It was my favorite part of the piece and I smiled at all the memories that came along with it. I remembered that I was going to play this at my recital that night too. I thought about that night when I had decided to play tennis for a living instead of music and how that was the end of my music career and would've been the beginning to my career as a pro tennis player. I began to think about all the things that I had lost that week, and I let a single tear slide down my face.

Mom, Brian and Alice deserved at least one tear right?

The last 15 seconds of the song were soft and when I ended, I let out a sigh of relief and closed my eyes. It took me a minute to look up but when I did I was surprised at what I found. 4 out of the 5 judges were crying and the last one was very close to tears. The old man stood up, with some difficulty, and started clapping and was followed by the rest of the crowd.

I don't know what it was but my skin started to tingle. It was like, even though there were plenty of people watching me, there was someone else who was watching me. Someone I knew who was there but I couldn't quite see them and thinking about it, it gave me such warmth and assurance that I couldn't help but to smile.

I bowed and walked off stage feeling like nothing could ruin this moment for me.